Welcome to Real Debate Wisconsin (RDW). This is primarily a conservative blog but we always welcome input from all points of view. Things get heated upon occasion but we ask that our readers do their best to keep things civil and respect all participants. We always welcome guest posts, so if there is something you would like to share feel free to email me at fkd1015 at yahoo dot com.

WASHINGTON - Several members of Congress have been saving thousands of dollars a year by taking a tax break to which they are not entitled.

Four members have been taking the homestead tax deduction on property they own in D.C., according to an investigation by Roll Call newspaper. The District's homestead deduction allows the homeowner to deduct $67,500 from the assessed value of the home, reducing the annual tax bill by $573.75. But the deduction also caps the annual increase in the assessed value at 10 percent.

For someone like Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., that can add up to a lot of money. Petri is one of the members if Congress found to be taking the tax break on his $2.9 million home in Georgetown. A spokesman for Petri tells Roll Call that Petri legally receives the tax benefit through his spouse, noting that although tax records list only "T.E. Petri" on the property, it is co-owned by Petri's wife, Anne Neal.

"She pays income taxes here, and she was the one who signed the form requesting the deduction," Petri spokesman Neil Wright told Roll Call.

The problem with that explanation is that Petri's wife is registered to vote in Wisconsin. In order to qualify for the deduction, you must be registered to vote in the District. Petri is listed as one of the 50 richest members of Congress.

Other lawmakers currently receiving the D.C. homestead deduction include Republican Reps. Phil Gingrey of Georgia and Steve King of Iowa.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., also received the deduction, but a spokeswoman for the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue said Rogers did not apply for the deduction and received it in error.King also received the deduction in error and intends to pay the back taxes, his spokesman Matt Lahr says.

According to a letter from D.C. Director of Real Property Tax Administration Richie McKeithen, King "has been inadvertently receiving the homestead deduction."

"Although you never applied for the benefit or the tax cap, the (Office of Tax and Revenue) applied the deduction to the property when the deed was recorded," the letter says. According to the Des Moines Register, the error may have occurred by someone inadvertently transferring the tax credit claimed by the previous owner to King.

Two other lawmakers also were reported to have accepted tax breaks on their homes in Maryland. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who owns a home in Potomac, Md., recently had his tax credit revoked for the second time in four years. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., took advantage of both state and local tax breaks on his home in Anne Arundel County, Md., according to Bloomberg News. Stark, the second-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, had received about $3,800 in tax breaks in 2007 and 2008 by listing the property as his primary residence.

Two more candidates have responded, Alderman Greg Helding and former Alderman Pete Karas, I thank them for their participation. I'll give their responses to the first question then post the second one.

Given the number of people running to be Racine ’s Mayor, why are you best suited for the job?

Pete Karas:I have a long history of proposing innovative solutions to solve our problems, while many of my opponents seem to advocate the same types of band-aid measures that have failed us in the past. While I was on the City Council, I fought against the short-sighted proposals of Gary Becker, and I often found myself fighting alone. If we are going to overcome the challenges before us, then we need to start doing things differently, and I think I can be that new way forward.Also, I will be dedicated to citizen involvement throughout my administration. We need more voices and more viewpoints involved in our decision-making process. I will hold more public hearings, put real teeth behind neighborhood plans, and promote greater diversity on our city’s boards and commissions.

Greg Helding:I am the only candidate with the experience and vision to lead Racine during these troubled times. The status quo, simply managing our problems, is not good enough. We must solve our problems. Candidates who don’t believe we can never will. I believe we can.

Now on to some new material.

What do you consider to be the top two issues facing our City and what do you propose to do about those issues?

Jody Harding:The number one issue facing Racine is a pervasive sense of hopelessness. Closely linked to that issue is the problem of poverty. Both of these issues can only be resolved through education and creating a business-friendly environment in Racine.

Many of our young- and not-so-young people have come to believe in a sort of “urban myth” than claims there is a conspiracy to keep persons of certain ethnic and/or economic backgrounds from succeeding. The fact that this is a cruel lie is proven by the fact that Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court Justice and Barak Obama is President of the United States. We must educate our children to the knowledge of their own potential. We must convince them of the value of education and their ability to achieve their dreams. We have a number of community organizations that are reaching out to families, teaching parenting skills, the value of education and promoting the “soft skills” that are essential to getting and keeping a family supporting job. The city needs to support these organizations with coordination and resources.

In order to foster a business-friendly climate in Racine, we must be able to provide a workforce that has the skills described above. We must make Racine financially competitive by cutting waste from the city budget and getting tax rates under control. Finally, instead of writing ever increasing regulations which restrict creativity and growth, we must allow companies the greatest possible flexibility in making decisions which affect their business.Pete Karas:

Without question, jobs and crime are the two main issues, and they are more related to one another than many people think. Certainly, jobs need to be the first priority, as we know that low unemployment means low crime rates as fewer people are forced to resort to desperate measures just to survive.

For jobs, I think we need to start by going through our departments and eliminating unnecessary fees and permits that place undue costs on businesses that might consider opening in Racine . We need to stop driving employers to Sturtevant and Caledonia . We also need to enforce and expand the Racine First program so that we have Racine people working on Racine projects. Further, the next mayor needs to priorities marketing Racine to large-scale employers and convince to relocate to our community.

Greg Helding:

CrimeDrug Crime is our biggest problem. Drug crime has two components: supply and demand. We must attack both if we are going to succeed. I plan to use the resources of City Hall to back our police officers in their fight against the suppliers. We will seize drug houses and renovate them or tear them down. We will go after hot beds of drug and gang activity, like Jacato Drive, and take care of the problems instead of wringing our hands. I will form “Neighborhood Action Teams” to identify and correct problems, restoring peace of mind to our neighborhoods. We will deploy portable “Neighborhood Cameras” that can be used by police and Neighborhood Watch groups to monitor trouble spots and drug activity.

In order to fight demand, we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to provide treatment and rehabilitation for drug addicts. The city has limited options in this regard, but we should still do the best we can. Federal grant money can be used to encourage local agencies to include drug screening and treatment as part of their services. Our Health Department can seek out grants to provide education and treatment.

JobsI believe that meeting the needs of our existing job providers is just as important as attracting new ones. As Mayor, I will establish the Mayor's Small Business Roundtable. Made up of small business owners from different business types and areas of the city, this group will meet quarterly and advise the Mayor: What should the city be doing to help? What is the city doing that might be hurting? I will listen to all points of view, not just supporters.

It is high time that City Hall does more than hope our development teams can make a connection with companies – I intend to go directly to the headquarters and board rooms of regional companies and explain what Racine has to offer them. As the CEO of the City, it is my job to “sell” the City to prospective employers. I would focus these efforts in three areas: “Green” manufacturing jobs, recruitment of pharmaceutical industry companies, and making sure Racine is ready for high-tech jobs.

I think I've always been pretty good about being able to "step back" and look at people/situations from a neutral position. Sure, some of my past life experiences are bound to leak in once in a while, and help to form conclusions I have. But overall, I've been pretty able to see things from other people's perspectives.

So, today I pretended to be someone who knows absolutely no one in the race for Racine Mayor and read the article online about the Mayoral forum held last night. Here are just some snippets along with my conclusions.

1. Bob Turner (sitting Assemblyman--and I do mean SITTING...not real active, mind you): Turner said the city should focus on maintaining existing employers and encouraging them to grow. If elected, he plans to meet with small businesses periodically to assess their needs.

My response: Jeez, wouldn't someone who brags about having been a representative of the people of Racine for 100 years ALREADY be meeting with small businesses periodically to assess their needs? Or does he REALLY mean "assess" in the terms of how to TAX their needs more? I guess if that's what he meant, he's been very successful in this area.

2. Bob Turner (continued): “Turner said he would look into past practices when deciding whether to accept pay for both positions.”

My response: Huh? Whose past practices is he referring to? Does he mean HIS past practices of having been an Alderman for 100 years while also being an Assemblyman and collecting both paychecks? (Ever heard the expression "Jack of All Trades--Master of None?" You could remove "Jack" and insert "Bob".) I guess if those are the "past practices" to which he refers, he plans on keeping both jobs. God knows, we sure need Bob Turner in BOTH places doing nothing to turn the city around. Whew! Thanks to Bob for making sure we're "represented."

3. Pete Karas: (why is he always scrunching up his nose like there's something very smelly about running for Mayor?): Karas said he would work with state legislators to strengthen laws for background checks and to microchip banned guns. Karas pushed for more improvements along the Root River. He said he’d like to see a dog park.“Why should people have to go to Caledonia to walk their dog?” he said.

My response: Thank God we have Pete who is really concerned about where people walk their dogs in a city with the highest unemployment in the state, worst public school system, and high crime on par with Milwaukee. I mean, really, I bet people are sitting around their kitchen tables this very night talking about the safety of their dog instead of how to pay their mortgage. Also, let's make sure those law-abiding citizens have a tougher time getting firearms. We all know that the gang bangers ruling the city's streets are going through the proper channels to get their guns--the channels just aren't strict enough, that's all!

Oh, and Pete's very proud of his latest endorsement received from the notorious Jameel Ghuari--the infamous Knock'n'Dragger from the inner city of Racine. Jameel's known best for his Escalade with spinners that carts people around on election days, making sure they are "educated" for whom to cast their votes. (O'k, I said that some of my past was bound to leak through once in a while....I digressed.)

4. Kim Plache: I don't have the heart to comment on the horrific pic the JTimes has up on their slideshow from the event. Even I'm not that callous. Her comments for the eve: probably were studiously read from her notes like the Taxpayers' Association's forum. I sure would've thought that by now she could speak from her heart and off the cuff. No specifics on how to tackle problems: just keep "reaching out....."

Those are all I'll take up room for today. Perhaps I'll opine more tomorrow...

My overall conclusion: either the JT did a really poor job and pulled out ridiculous quotes from an evening full of information, or the candidates are what they appear to be. If the latter is correct, would the last business out of Racine be sure to turn out the lights?

authorities expect the Milwaukee-to-Madison trains to carry 1.08 million riders a year within a couple years after service starts, said Randy Wade, the state's passenger rail chief. Hiawatha ridership jumped 24% last year, to 766,167.

So these people really believe that there are more people that need to take a train from Milwaukee to Madison than from Milwaukee to Chicago?

Seriously?!?

That's the problem with projections from liberals they are jacked up beyond belief to make their proposals look better than they really are. When you look at reality the truth comes out. (By the way Jimmie "Trains" KRM project is projected to run an average of 321 riders per train.)

By the way, did you know that President Obama's budget is projected out based on the economy growing at 4% + per year every year starting in 2010?

Last Monday I sent a number of questions to each of the Racine Mayoral candidates asking them to respond by Sunday the 22nd for publication here.

I spoke to most of them personally in advance and all of those who I did speak to readily agreed to participate. I told them I would publish their responses without edit one question at a time leading up to the primary election.

To be fair, I understand Lesia Hill-Driver has been out of the state caring for a sick child. We wish her and her son the very best.

Despite their initial willingness to participate only one candidate took the time to respond to me, Jody Harding. I thank her for following up and standing by her word.

If I do get any more responses from the other candidates I'll add their responses as well.

Given the number of people running to be Racine’s Mayor, why are you best suited for the job?Jody Harding.

All but one of the mayoral candidates besides myself have years of experience in government positions, either elected or appointed. If these people had real solutions to the problems plaguing Racine, I believe we would have heard about them before now.

I am a CPA with 30 years experience in management positions. I have spent my life helping organizations work efficiently, cut costs, reach their goals and generally do more with less. I would bring that same skill set to the management of city government.

I strongly believe in personal responsibility, and the power of the community. I believe that as individuals and business owners, we know best how to live our lives and run our companies. Our community organizations have the best knowledge of the needs of our neighborhoods and the practices that make a difference. Our government should be supporting these groups, not dragging resources away to fund the same old tried-and-failed programs.